And while it’s doubtful your wife will hack a telecom’s database anytime soon to find your erotic chat with Hot Wet Girls in Chocolate Sauce, the paranoia over mobile “paper trails” was enough for Staellium U.K. to launch StealthText, a new service that offers self-destructing text messaging.
The service is an extension of the company’s StealthMobile application, which enables the destruction of email, voice and pictures messages as well.
“Each time we press ‘send’ for our texts, emails and voicemails, we relinquish control over all manner of content to those with whom we share it,” a Staellium spokesperson said during the service’s launch. “Should we not ask ourselves if the information we are sending might be misused?”
The technology is simple: StealthText acts as a middleman between two cellphones. Users send messages directly to Staellium, after which the recipient receives a notification of a message waiting for them on the Staellium server. Once that message has been read, the company promises the text will be permanently erased within 40 seconds.
Granted, the phone company still has a copy of the text, but it would need a court order to dig that up, so unless the user is plotting something illegal, StealthText ensures that succumbing to those 2 a.m. late night TV offers doesn’t get anybody in trouble.
Sports fans may remember when Rebecca Loos, alleged mistress of soccer star David Beckham, created a media frenzy when she released copies of text messages Beckham supposedly sent her while he was engaged to wife and ex-Spice Girl Victoria.
The incident is one Staellium itself promises won’t happen to people who use the StealthText service.
Although the service is only currently available in the U.K., the company is in talks with several companies, including two unnamed providers in the U.S. The application can send self-destructing messages through both SMS and WAP using a small applet each user has to download before using the service.
Once installed, users key in a short code before sending their messages, no doubt harkening some back to the famous self-destructing tape scenes in the Mission Impossible series.
“‘This tape will self destruct in five seconds’ became a household phrase in the 60s and 70s thanks to the creators of Mission Impossible,” reads Staellium’s homepage. “Now, 30 years later, the ability to send your own self-destruct messages has become a reality.”
